


Closest to the Sea, the Sun, the Horizon

by Scribblurri



Category: One Piece
Genre: Basically a guess at why Luffy likes sitting on the figurehead so much, Canon Compliant, Gen, Monkey D. "no i will not answer your question properly" Luffy, Nakamaship, Post-Canon, Sorry Luffy POV is hard to write oops, Sort of but doesn't need to be?, Thousand Sunny is wonderful, spoilers up to dressrosa technically
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-03
Updated: 2020-04-03
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:07:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23459068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scribblurri/pseuds/Scribblurri
Summary: Luffy blinks."I said, why do you like it so much?" Nami sighs, obviously not pleased at needing to repeat the question.Luffy blinks again, and tilts his head, water dripping down his dear hat as he does."Because I just like it?"Three people's hands meet their faces at the same time with a loud smack.(or: promises, dreams, and memories, all to answer a simple question)
Relationships: Monkey D. Luffy & Mugiwara Kaizoku | Strawhat Pirates
Comments: 25
Kudos: 294





	Closest to the Sea, the Sun, the Horizon

Luffy blinks.

"I said, why do you like it so much?" Nami sighs, obviously not pleased at needing to repeat the question.

Luffy blinks again, and tilts his head, water dripping down his dear hat as he does.

"Because I just like it?"

Three people's hands meet their faces at the same time with a loud smack. 

They're sitting on the deck now, Luffy sopping wet, Chopper fussing at his side, and Jinbe calmly reminding their doctor that wearing a wet kimono was absolutely standard for himself. Robin is sitting upright in her lounging chair, arms crossed over her chest, and more arms sprouting from the deck, holding down Brook from jumping into the sea too. Franky had come up to the deck at some point, probably because of Nami, Usopp, and Sanji's yelling, and Zoro had simply resumed his nap by the railing as soon as he saw Jinbe resurface.

Luffy really doesn't get why it matters so much. Everyone else had already given up on questioning him about it (being Chopper, Robin, Franky, Brook, and Jinbe) or didn't think it mattered in the first place (being Zoro. Luffy appreciates that). There shouldn't need to be a reason.

"It's the easiest place on the ship to fall off from," Usopp continues.

"Yeah?"

"And you  _ can't swim. _ "

"Yeah."

"And each time you fall, Zoro, Sanji, or Jinbe has to jump in and save you, and sometimes we have to save Chopper and Brook too, because they're idiots."

"Yeah."

"So  _ why _ do you like sitting there?!" Sanji cuts in, growing frustration highly evident.

"...I just do?"

Luffy doesn't know what they're expecting; He thinks they're being stupid about it anyway. He doesn't like thinking about complicated things, and he doesn't get why it should be important; he tells them as much. There didn't need to be a reason.

"You guys'll always save me anyway, so it doesn't matter," Luffy insists as he always does, because it's such a simple fact.

It's funny how his crew all react in their own way— Usopp rubs his head, Nami turns away to run a hand through her hair, Franky waves it off while tears stream down his face, Chopper starts doing an odd dance whilst spitting insults like  _ that doesn't make me happy or anything, you idiot! _ and even Sanji puts his hand on his neck. Everyone else shoots him a smile ranging from sweet to shark-like (well, except Brook, 'cause he can't really do that, but Luffy knows his crew, and he can feel it anyway).

"That doesn't answer the question," Sanji grumbles, and Luffy just laughs in response, lying down to bask in the sun and close his eyes. Nami and Usopp card through his wet hair, sighing, occasionally tracing the scar under his eye, and Luffy lets himself relax.

"Just 'cause the sea doesn't like me doesn't mean I don't like the sea," Luffy says, and he can feel Sanji raise an eyebrow at that. Usopp blinks, Nami stares, Chopper pauses, and everyone else on the ship stills a bit, so he continues: "Touching it makes me tired, sure, but it'd be a waste to not like it because of something like that. It's too pretty for that. Plus, it's where Jinbe is from!"

"Okay, okay, point taken there, devil fruit eaters don't necessarily need to dislike the ocean," Usopp sighs, "But we're talking about the figurehead! You sat there all the time on Merry, too. And you know, it's horrifying, each time we turn around and you disappear under the water, or you're already gone and we don't know how long you've been gone…"

Usopp drifts off into a pause, and then there's soft footsteps treading through grass, and Luffy realizes that everyone is gathering on the deck. He smiles and laughs. They haven't done this lately; just sat down on the deck or laid on the soft grass together. Robin, Brook, and Franky move to sit on the lawn, Nami, Usopp, and Chopper hang by Luffy's side with Jinbe close behind, and Sanji steps back to pull out a cigarette. Luffy turns his head to the side to ask, "Ah? Zoro?" but there are already hands lifting his head, and then he's face to face with Zoro, head resting in Zoro's lap.

"It's pretty damn terrifying," of all people,  _ Franky _ is the one to say, "We know you can handle yourself in fights, but the sea is a different story, Luffy-bro."

"We go through so many battles, and you ruin your body so much, and you get so many scars," Nami says, voice strained, "Don't waste all of that by falling into the sea out of nowhere like an idiot. "

They're all scowling now, and Luffy frowns.

"Hey," he says, sitting up, and he places his hands on their shoulders, one on Usopp's and one on Nami's. "You all know that I'll save you no matter what, so that means  _ I _ need to believe it too." They stare at him when he says that, and this time he  _ knows  _ that they understand what he means. "And I know you all will save me no matter what, so that means  _ you _ need to believe it too." 

They all go silent for a bit at that, until Zoro says, "Aye aye, Captain," with the grin of a sea king, and Jinbe gives a nod as well. There's yet another tangle of sighs, lighter now, and a fist knocks lightly at his head before ruffling his hair.

"That doesn't mean you get to fall off the ship whenever you want, rubberbrain," Sanji says softly, though his gaze flares up at eye contact with Zoro.

"But I like lying on the figurehead!" Luffy gives a laugh and plops back down in Zoro's lap, effectively cutting the oncoming fight short, and fingers card through his hair again, this time Zoro's.

"Speaking of which, why  _ do  _ you enjoy sitting there, Captain?" Brook asks, sockets hollow as always yet voice laced with wonder, and Luffy frowns. This again? Really?

"It's especially bad if you fall off in the middle of nightwatch," Chopper grimaces, "Why don't you go up to the lookout? You can see better from up there."

"I don't like it as much as the figurehead," Luffy pouts, now suddenly wondering about it himself.

Why did he like the figurehead so much?

Of course he loved that it was like being able to sit on Sunny's head and pet her, but it was still a different kind of feeling. It didn't have the highest viewpoint like the lookout nor the soft grass of the deck; maybe because it was the very front?

It was just an incomparable feeling; the seas were so close beneath him he could hear the rush of the waves and watch the clear blue beneath rolling seafoam, and the sky was so vast and endless above him, and the sea and the sun met so seamlessly, nothing interrupting the smooth harmony of the view in front of him.

Nothing keeping him from the dream he could reach out to, just like—

" _ Oh! _ " Luffy thinks, now excited. "I think I know!"

His crew all blink, as if they hadn't expected there to be a clear reason after all the initial hesitance, though maybe there was a reason after all, even if there didn't  _ need _ to be one. Luffy's no good at telling stories, but they all lean in to listen.

"Please do tell, dear Captain," Robin says, never losing the pleasant smile on her face, but curiosity sparking in her eyes.

"Well, it's not really a story, but Ace n' Sabo were there!"

His crew startles a bit; Nami's eyes go blank, Usopp sweats, Zoro flinches, Sanji stops cold, Chopper's eyes water, and everyone else who didn't have the chance to meet the man looks down. 

Luffy sort of wonders if he shouldn't continue, because they always get like  _ that _ whenever he says Ace's name, but Luffy is okay, really, so they should be too.

He's fine. He's been fine since that day in Amazon Lily, when Jinbe shook him by the shoulders and asked him,  _ what do you have left? _ And Luffy remembered that he had so many things, so much, just enough that he could count them with his fingers, and yet that was more than enough.

He had so many promises and dreams carried with his own that were unfulfilled; Of being the world's best swordsman, of charting the world's endless seas, of becoming a brave warrior of the sea, of finding the miracle All Blue, of discovering the cure to all diseases, of uncovering the True History, of sailing the seas on their dear Thousand Sunny, of fulfilling long buried promises that live still unforgotten, of mending rifts and hate so long torn open.

Of becoming the freest person in the world.

Of Ace saying to him, "Tell them all, 'Thank you for loving me,'" but surely they knew that all along; they  _ had _ to have known that, being there and watching him cry on that platform, and so that wasn't what Ace had meant at all.

He had meant ' _ live _ to tell them.'

(Luffy thinks, perhaps, when they were children, it wasn't a promise between himself and Ace. The promise not to die wasn't a promise at all.

It was a dream, and on the battlefield amidst the ravage, Luffy had to carry it on.)

He had meant 'You need to  _ live _ ,' and so Luffy has loved and lost and lived, but even still,  _ lives _ , because he has so much left, so many dreams to carry; for it all, he'd discovered that he still had one brother left, even if Sabo couldn't be here with him.

He has everything else that matters here in front of him now; of course he's okay!

Robin keeps her smile, maybe for thinking of her time with Sabo, and Jinbe doesn't react at all; just looks onward unfalteringly. They exchange a glance, nod, and Jinbe says, "We'd love to hear it."

"So," Luffy crosses his arms, "When me n' Ace n' Sabo were kids, more than anything, all we wanted was to be free. Ace was treated badly 'cause of his dad, Sabo had horrible parents 'cause they didn't care about him the right way, n' I hated Gramps trying to force me to become a Marine. So to become free, we swore to become pirates!"

His crew exchanges looks, some laughingly, some bewildered, and Sanji mutters  _ how do you come to that conclusion? _

"See, we were raised by mountain bandits! And— "

"I'm surprised that that's unsurprising, " Nami says dryly, and Luffy can't help laughing.

"Yeah, anyway, it was when we agreed to become pirates, there was a place we all went to! My favorite place on the island!" Luffy says, memory burning as vivid as the sky you could see from that view, and he throws his arms out wide.

"There was a forest on the mountain, where we drank sake and became brothers! And behind the forest was a cliff! You could see the horizon where the sun and the sea met so clearly, n' that was where we swore to become pirates! That was where I first swore to become the Pirate King!"

Luffy sits up and turns toward the open sea, and he can almost hear the long-passed memories echoing before him.

"And after Sabo— well, after we  _ thought _ Sabo died, we went there again, and we swore to be stronger! N' so, the figurehead makes me think of that cliff, where we said our dreams out loud and reached for them."

He stands up, walks over to the figurehead of the Sunny, and looks onward. The sea is still just as bright, the wind feels just as strong, and the sun is still just as warm.

Luffy turns back to his crew, and he smiles.

"It was the place where we were the most free!"

**Author's Note:**

> If you have a particular scene or line you enjoyed, please comment ♡


End file.
